The First Rain
by jezebel-summonthepolice
Summary: Tohru gets a job as a maid working a the Palace of Akitaio, in which she meets a variety of intresting and mysterious people, including Yuki, a strange Prince deprived of what only Tohru can show him. SEQUEL HAS BEEN WRITTEN FOR THIS FIC!
1. The Fly

Bonjourno! Hey! My third proper furuba fic! I hope you guys all enjoy it. It took me ages to come up with the storyline, and I hope it's original and shall make all Yukiru fans squee to their hearts' delight!

Just as a brief note; I tried to do a lot of different things with this fic, like Kyo and Yuki's rivalry is still mentioned but they don't fight anymore, and It is an AU fic, soit is set in a fantasy world, with a lot of little features I hope you'll notice and like. So on with the fic! I love you readers! And to anyone who has read DFruits Basket Does Phantom… Kyo rocks as The Phantom! (Not wanting to praise my own ideas of course… Heh heh…)

Oh yeah, and to the heartfelt regret that shall sit in the bttom of my heart till I am old and withered, and festers in the pits of my soul (Soul's have pits? What a weird expression..) I do not own Fruits Basket.

Well, here it goes, we shall begin.

**First Rain**

**Chapter One: The Fly**

Tohru smiled and closed her eyes happily as she breathed in the cold air of her 17th winter. She held two small bags in her hands, and when she released the breath, she opened her eyes and looked again upon the palace. Her new home. And it was Spectacular.

She had previously lived as a maid in a wealthy Sohma household, working for a relative of the five Princes of Sohma, but she had never before been to the Country's capital. After fighting her way politely but firmly through the crowds of ambitious and forceful residents of Akitaeo, she had finally found herself at the palace gates. She now looked in awe upon the glittering domes and towers that seemed to be growing from the roves of the colossal building.

With one more steady intake of breath, she began to walk. She paced carefully down the first main gravel path, passing box hedges and fountains, occaisionally glancing at the building ahead of her, counting the windows, doors, and servants she could see working. She gulped as she realised she would soon be one of them.

Finally she reached the towering palace doors, and placed one of her small bags on the floor so she could knock.

There was no answer.

At first she thought she hadn't knocked loud enough, and considered trying again, but as she lifted up her wrist and clenched fist once more, she found the huge doors creaking open infront of her.

She was met with the smile of a blonde boy just a little shorter than she was, who was having some difficulty pulling open the doors which were about fifty times his size.

Tohru walked reluctantly through them, and the blonde realised there was no need to keep letting the cold air in. He started to push the doors closed again, with even more of a trial than he'd had trying to open them.

Seeing this, Tohru took the other door, dropping both bags on the floor.

"Y-you must be… The…. New girl!" Grunted the boy, smiling at Tohru.

"Y-yes-" she would have said more, but the door suddenly loosened it's grip on what seemed to be the floor, and slammed shut, sending her plummeting into it. Before she could pick herself up, the same thin g happened to the small boy, and they were both panting as they leant into the heavy mahogany doors. "M-my name's Tohru Honda. Pleased to… Meet you!" She laughed in her apologetic manner.

The boy smiled. "My name's Momiji Sohma."

"M-Momi-… As in the Prince?"

"Uh-huh." Momiji's smile got wider as the girl panicked and fell to her knees in a bow.

"S-sorry I didn't know you were-"

"Hey, it's OK… I didn't expect you to know!"

Momiji showed the panic-stricken maid around, and introduced her to the rest of the palace staff. There were only very brief introductions, and Tohru found it very hard to memorize any names, seen as everyone was rushing around trying to get things done.

Tohru also had a hard time concentrating, on account of the surroundings she found herself in. There was at least one chandelier in every room. The floors were so clean she could see her own reflection in them. There were portraits of past Royals on the walls, and the ceilings stretched up to what seemed like miles. She had thought her old employer's estate was wealthy, but she found herself being blown over with every new sight in this place. _Well it is the palace of Akitao, I suppose… _

Finally she was being told what to do, instead of being invited. One of the senior staff whisked her away from the side of Prince Momiji, who had been treating _her_ like the royalty ever since she arrived, which as she observed on one of the towering Grandfather clocks in one of the halls, was only half an hour ago.

She was told that she had to start cleaning the rooms on the third floor, and that her bags and possessions would be taken to her room. She was then handed an apron, and practically pushed up the stairs.

She put on the apron as she climbed the spiralling marble stairs. Apparently she was going to receive a proper uniform but it hadn't been made yet. Instead she was still wearing the clothes she had arrived in, which was a mid-length brown skirt and a white shirt with sleeves that kept getting caught in any slight breeze and billowed out in many inconvenient directions.

After cleaning four of the rooms along the corridor (Which was about 12 yards wide) and being once again physically knocked over by the sheer size and decadence of the rooms, she came to the fifth.

For some reason she had a premonition as she stood in front of the door. Perhaps it was the fact that the door looked slightly newer than the others, as if it hadn't been used very often… Or the fact that the door had strange gold leaf patterns around it's dark mahogany frame. (Most of the wood used in the palace of Akitao was made of mahogany, on account of the specific trees that grew in the surrounding forests.)

She wasn't sure whether her premonition was a good or bad one, but she was sure that something would change as soon as she opened that door.

Nevertheless, knowing that it was her job, and that she didn't want to screw up in a fancy place like this, she reluctantly leaned on the door, and pushed it open.

To her surprise, she found that un like the other rooms she had cleaned, this one was not vacant.

There was a boy, with greyish hair and large grey eyes, wearing the same sort of clothes as Momiji, standing on the large bed. He was holding a large book, and appeared to be looking at a fly that had flown in through a crack in the wooden window covers that blocked out the light of the room.

He was moving away in panic whenever the fly came near him or the bed he was standing on. He was too transfixed by the miniscule insect to notice Tohru, but she half was glad for it, seen as she was also transfixed by him. This boy -Who appeared to be another Prince of Akitao-… Was he really afraid of a fly?

"Um…" Tohru tried to break the silence. (That is, if you don't count the buzzing of the creature that was the centre of all of this interest.) "Uh… Do, do you need any help here, sir?"

The boy looked up. It was only then that she saw how big his grey eyes really were. And the fact that he was obviously terrified didn't make them look any smaller.

"I… That, is, what, I mean… You… What is that thing?" He gestured towards the fly, still looking at Tohru, and flinched, jumping about a footing the air as it landed on his outstretched hand.

"D-don't tell me you've never seen… You must have seen a fly before!" Tohru said, as she cautiously approached the boy, who was staring into black form of the large fly that was slowly starting to crawl up his slender wrist and get lost in the folds of his shirt cuffs.

She carefully placed her fingers around the fly, and lifted it off his trembling wrist. She then walked over to the window.

"W-what are you-" Before he could finish, she had opened the painted wood covers, and flung open the window.

She put her hand to the window, and the fly waited for a second before flying away. As she started to turn around, she was almost knocked over by the Prince, who had leapt off his bed and was now staring out of the window in awe. His eyes looked even wider than before. She looked at him in puzzlement, and then in concern as a tear dripped silently down from his overflowing grey eyes.

"What… What _is that…?_"

"What?" Tohru watched as he looked towards the clouds.

"That… Blue ceiling… With the white paint on it."

"I, I don't really know what you mean." The boy smiled, yet he never took his eyes off the window. " I, I guess I'll come back later."

As she turned to leave, she took one last glance at the boy. She had never had much experience with princes before, and the two encounters she had already had in one morning were both very different. The second was definitely more puzzling though.

As she worked on what seemed like the other hundreds of rooms along that corridor, which was on the top floor– apart from the attic- it was impossible to concentrate with the mysterious and anonymous Prince in her mind. He was so strange. Until she had opened the window it had been very dark, so she hadn't really had a proper look at him, seen as the moment she opened the window he hadn't turned away from it to look at her. The only feature that had really stood out were his eyes; those two pools of grey that stared at her in bewilderment, and almost fear at something as miniscule and common as a little fly.

She considered asking another staff-member whether he was a prince or not, but she had a feeling she wasn't supposed to be going into the rooms of royalty anyway. She probably would have been more polite if she didn't think he was a little crazy. But he hadn't seemed to notice.

"Haru!" As Tohru traipsed down the stairs in an exhausted daze, she saw Momiji run across the polished marble floor at the main hall, and into the arms of a tall, white-haired boy. She stopped on the stairs and smiled. Momiji saw her looking, and waved at her, still clinging onto who must have been Haru.

"Who's this?" Said the white-haired one, holding onto Momiji's shoulder and looking at Tohru. She blushed. He was very good looking.

"This is Tohru." Said Momiji. And then he whispered, "She's the new-girl." Haru flicked him on the head.

"Um, pleased to meet you." She bowed, hoping he wasn't another prince.

"Haru is another Prince." Said Momiji. Tohru sighed inwardly. She was having a very awkward day.

"My name is Hatsuharu Sohma, and the pleasure is all mine." He bowed even lower than she had, and came up smiling. "So, when does your shift finish?"

"Sh-shift? I, I don't know…"

"Oh, well, you can end it now then. " He smiled at her once more. "We need someone to hang out with. Everyone else is about twice our age. And you'll need to get adjusted, right?"

Thru stuttered for about five minutes, until she finally got the words out. "Th- Thankyou very much, I'd love t-to." Haru and Momiji smiled at her, and she joined them downstairs.

By the time they had left the hall, night had already fallen on the palace.

Tohru sighed deeply as she settled herself in a large armchair in the Princes' special private living room, which had books spread all over the never-ending walls, and a huge fireplace that had been lit. Perhaps Hatsuharu and Momiji could give her some answers.


	2. Trapped

Hey! Chapter 2 already… This is fun…

I hope you guys liked the first chapter, and I know I will probably get flamed for giving the capital city such a dopey spastic obvious name, but I have my reasons.

Anyway, I know the first chapter was weird, and I realise there are spelling mistakes and stuff, but I can't be bothered to fix them, so I'm afraid you shall have to deal with them.

And so, let the second chapter commence! (On with the fic!)

Oh yeah, brief tiup for reading any of my fanfiction: I always find there's a special type of music that's good for each fic. This one has a whole load of Studio Ghibli song inspiration- so see if you can download some Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away music. Mononoke Hime is best. I'm listening to it right now… I love Studio Ghibli…-heart heart-

**First Rain**

**Chapter 2: Answers**

Haru, Momiji and Tohru sat quietly in the living room, the fire blazing and the warmth spreading to the very last corners of the moss-green/mahogany walls.

Momiji shut the door and quietly sat down on the floor next to where Haru was sitting. He yawned. Haru smiled. Tohru wiped her sleepy eyes.

"So, what do you think of it all so far?" Haru said, sinking further into his chair.

"Everything in this city is so beautiful… And the palace is probably the prettiest thing of all."

"Oh no." Haru closed his eyes. "I think the forests are definitely prettier."

"I wonder what Yuki would think of them…" Momiji pondered tiredly to himself. Haru flicked him once again. "What?" Haru cleared his throat. Tohru blinked. Who was Yuki?

"Um… Prince Hatsuharu-"

"Please, you don't have to call us 'Prince'. Everyone else does. You're a friend." Said Haru.

"Oh… OK, um, Hatsuharu-san, I was wondering if you knew about anything, well, anyone really, who might be on the third floor."

Haru and Momiji both went wide-eyed. "Th-third floor?"

Tohru gulped. _Oops. I guess I wasn't supposed to be there after all._

"You went on the third floor? Didn't they tell you it was forbidden to everyone except the senior staff?"

"No! I was told to clean the rooms on the third floor!"Tohru had started to panic again, and was as wide-eyed as the other two.

"You went in one of the _rooms?_" Momiji yelled, also panicking.

"I went in _all of the rooms!_" Tohru yelled back. By this time they were both standing up, and staring forlornly at eachother.

"Calm down, calm down." Said Haru, shaking his head and gesturing at them both to sit back down. They obediently did so. "So, you went into every room on that floor… Which happens to be our floor?"

"Y-yes? Is that bad-?"

"Hold on, hold on. Look. Did you even go in the fifth room along?"

"Yes! That was the room with the boy in it!"

Now both Princes were panicking. Even though Tohru was panicking enough for the three of them.

"You mean, Haru, do you think she saw-"

"Yes. Tohru? I think you might've stumbled upon the future King of Sohma."

Tohru: O.O

-AN: sorry, I couldn't resist. Pffthahahahah! Resume fic-

Tohru sat completely still. "Is, that bad?"

"Kinda… Well, you didn't do anything in there did you?"

"No." Then she thought again. "Well, yeah. I saved him from a fly."

Hatsuharu and Momiji both leapt up from the floor. "There was a fly in his room!" They said simultaneously.

Haru put a hand on his forehead. "Poor Yuki…"

"Y-yes…there was a fly… But don't worry, I put it out the window." Now both Princes turned white.

"You opened his window? In… In front of him?" Said Haru, his hands raised at Tohru as if in a plea.

Tohru sensed from the tone in his voice that this was deadly serious.

"Y-yes."

Haru put a hand on the chair to steady himself. "This is bad…"He sat down again, and Momiji followed him.

"Why? What have I done!" Tohru said, her panic turning to fear. She was going to get fired on the first day?

"Well, there is an age old custom in the Sohma royal family. Well, more of an order from some dead elder. He's probably frowning at me in his grave for saying that, but anyway… The custom is that until his coronation and marriage, the Prince who'll take the crown after his Father won't have any contact with the outside world. And if for some reason he sees the world beyond his room before that time, he'll either be put to death or will never be allowed to leave it. So, no windows, no paintings, nothing. Heh… I bet Yuki was scared of that fly, huh?"

"Y-yes…"

"Well, that's because he's never seen one before. Yuki, my cousin and brother, has never seen or heard or been told of anything other than human beings. I wonder… What did he do when you opened his window?"

"He-… he cried. And, he said something about a ceiling-…" Tohru gasped. "You mean- he's never even seen the sky?"

"No. He's never seen anything except that little room. He's not allowed to leave it until he's coroneted. And if our father lives a long and fruitful life, which we all _should_ hope he does, Yuki might have to stay in there past his sixties."

"His sixties? Th-that's terrible…"She considered this for a moment. "But, how is he supposed to rulke a country on his own if he doesn't know what a _tree_ is? He'll know nothing except for that room…"

"That's the point. It's so that his 'advisers' will have almost complete control over his every move, so he'll hardly be ruling at all. Just a body to uphold some stupid tradition. They don't know what it's like. We've protested all or lives, but they won't let up on anything as big as this. But now, he's sort of lucky, I guess. You found him, and accidentally screwed up our most important Royal custom."

Tohru clapped a hand to her mouth. "Oh God…"

"Oh, don't worry, they're stupid customs. We've already abandoned a couple, luckily."

Momiji leaned in and whispered to Tohru. "Haru was supposed to get castrated." Tohru went beet red, and Momiji got an angry flick on the head.

"_Anyway_, did you leave his window open?" Said Haru, composing himself.

"Yes…"

"Then we'll have to go and shut it before anyone finds out what Yuki's seen. We don't want him to get killed, or you to lose your job. Especially since you're so cute." Haru winked and started to leave the room, Momiji following. Tohru stood up. But she only just about managed to lift herself up. It was as if a great weight had fallen upon her.

How could someone live without seeing any of this beautiful world? How could you survive like that? No moon, no sun, no stars. No sky at all…

She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she imagined being trapped in a room for that long.

Haru turned and saw her wiping her pity tears away, and slowed down so that he could put an arm around her.

"It's OK. He's never seen what it's like, so he hasn't known what he's been missing. He has been happy before…" Haru drifted off. It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to speak to Yuki properly- about how he was and how he felt… almost a year, in fact. He hadn't even seen him for a couple of months. He wondered if Yuki looked at all different. He couldn't see how though. He'd still have the pale skin, from lack of sunlight, and the sad eyes, from sheer loneliness. Perhaps they'd known no other emotion other than sadness?

The three of them walked in silence up the stairs, and quietly approached Yuki's room.

As Momiji opened the door, Tohru looked at its size. Sure, it was a pretty big room, but this was the only sized space Yuki had ever known. She also noticed that the wallpaper was blank. All the other rooms had birds and tapestries with rivers and streams and horses decorating their walls. Were they really so afraid of just giving Yuki's room a little colour? It wasn't as if he'd know what anything was anyway.

Yuki was curled up asleep on his windowsill, his hand hanging out into the cool air of the winter night. The moon reflected the silvery trails that ran down his cheeks, and his lips were turned up into a little smile. The tall window looked like a frame around his silhouette, the silver light shining on his grey hair. Haru smiled. He had lied before. This was the first time he had seen Yuki actually looking sincerely happy.

Haru picked Yuki up, and carried him to his bed. Momiji shut the window and closed the covers. It seemed more of a shame than even the concept of the custom, blocking up the natural light that Yuki had never hungered for, because he'd never seen it. It was cruel. More cruel than Yuki's original sentence, to expect him to wake up and not yearn for the beauty he had now seen. Now, instead of having to live in complete ignorance, he would have to live in torture and longing. It wasn't like he would be able to keep himself from looking. He would open that window again, and he'd be eventually caught, and no Sohma could take the crown.

"Why him?" Said Tohru quietly. Haru and Momiji both looked up.

"What?" Said Haru. Tohru was looking at Yuki, as he lay sleeping. She had seen his face in the moonlight, and now in the lamplight. E was extremely handsome. His hair was as grey as his eyes. His skin was as white as the moon. His eyes as big as they had seemed before. "Why him? Who chose him to be the next king? Is it age?"

"No. There's one other Sohma Prince his age." Said Haru. a little taken aback with the forcefulness of her question.

"One? No, there are-"

"Shut up short stack."Haru hissed at Momiji. "You're so bad at keeping secrets. If you're not carefull I'll revive the custom that says you should have your tongue cut out."Momiji covered his mouth with both hands. "The selection was almost random. There were two princes born in the same year, so they choise the one who was born first. Yuki was only a heartbeat older than Kyo. He's my other cousin."

"It's so unfair."

"Yeah, I know. But the other customs have chaged. At least Momiji isn't a mute."

"And at least Haru's not a soprano."Momiji tittered.

"Yeah, well, Kyo's the one who's off with Kagura, who I'm sure will behead him if he tries to run away _again_."

"Kyo… He is the other Prince Yuki's age, right?"Asked Tohru, covering Yuki with his duvet, which had been mussed up, probably from his little fly escapade earlier."

"Mmm-hmm. He was betrothed when he was born… I think she's a cousin aswell…"Haru pondered for a moment. "Yes. She's another cousin, her name is Kagura."

"So, he could have been King too?"

"I guess so, yeah." Haru siged. Momiji sighed too, but that sigh turned quickly into a yawn. "Go to bed."

"I'm not-" Momiji yawned again. "…Tired."

After practically being kicked away, Momiji retired to his room, which was along the corridor. Tohru discovered that the three Princes all resided on the thirds floor. Kyo had aswell, but he was living in another city.

Haru sat down on the bed near Yuki, and placed a hand on the sleeping Prince's head. "You know, Kyo used to hate Yuki."

"R-really? H-how come?"

"Jealousy I suppose. Our Father always used to tell us what an honour it is to be a King, and Kyo was always jealous that Yuki was going to receive that honour instead of him. He got over it though. When he started to have to come and see Yuki occaisionally, the jealousy turned to pity. He started to see Yuki as a victim, rather than a traitor." Haru sighed once more, his eyes closed and a sad smile on face. "Now they couldn't be closer. Kyo saw Yuki once every day, and sometimes he even stayed in this room with him. But, the time came when he had to get married and leave. He still writes, but since he left, Yuki hasn't really had anyone. I'm always doing stuff outside the palace, and Momiji can't sit still in one place for more than two minutes."

Tohru sat down next to Haru. "So, he has no-one to talk to, while he's alone in here?"

"Not a soul."

The tears came again. Tohru cried more outraged, shocked, piteous tears. It was so unfair. And she'd gone and made it worse.

"I'll stay with him."

"What?"

"I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. It's just not fair on him. I'll keep him company."

From that moment, Tohru swore a vow. Until Yuki could become king and leave his room, she would stay with him and help him learn everything there was to know about the world. Even if it meant breaking the rules.

AN: OK, I realise that without pointing it out, no-one would probably thjink of this. But I shall say it anyway: 'How does Yuki not smell awful without a bathroom?' My first theory was that Yuki has a little bathroom down the corridor, but that defeats the object of his imprisonment entirely. So I came up with this.

He uses a sponge!

Sponge: I wash Yuki, he's dirty…!

Yuki: Great. A talking sponge.

Tohru: You're afraid of a fly, but you can handle a talking sponge? …Freak…

AN 2: If you're wondering why cousins have the same father, I forgot to mention, in this fic they are half brothers half cousins. That is what distinguishes them from the other Sohmas. They partly come directly from the royal line, because their mothers are all different sisters. Hee hee, the Sohma King has been 'working hard' to get some decent heirs…!


	3. Waiting For Blue

Heyy! Chappy numba three is here! I am actually really enjoying writing this. –Well, I expected to. I am all alone in my house, and it is very very quiet here. I get really lonely sometimes… BUT I HAVE MSN messenger too! So that helps… But all I have is Yuki to keep me company.

Note to Fanfic people on the disclamatorial side of things…: Don't panic, keep your shorts on, I don't own Fruits Basket. –If you don't wear shorts then fine, don't lose your leggings.

Oh, and I like people who read my stuff, so I drew you guys a Yuki pickle. I take it there are Yuki fans out there to read this Yukiru. (Yes, I know in furuba does phantom I screwed it up royally by flipping from Kyoru to Yukiru until everyone was plotting to lasso me, so I am saying this now- YUKIRU POWER! And no question about it! –Makes it a kyoru.)

Note: No Sohma Curse. Yay! I can hug Yuki as much as I like!

Well, here we go.

**First Rain**

**Chapter 3: Waiting For Blue**

Tohru couldn't sleep. She couldn't even close her eyes. It was as if she was entering his world of darkness. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get out. Just like he couldn't.

As she lay restlessly in her small bed in the building next to the Palace that was reserved for the staff, she thought of all the things she should have done, if she had known. When she walked into that little room and saw him with that fly. If she'd known she would have comforted him. She would have known how terrifying a creature other than human would be to someone who knew nothing of that life.

Finally she could no longer stand it. She got dressed again and left the staff building. In the freezing winter night air, she found her way across the gardens and into one of the easier-to-open side doors of the palace. She was almost scared at how silent it was.

She took off her shoes at the door so as not to make any sound as she walked, and began to climb up the massive spiralling stairs once more. The windows send small sheets of light onto her back and the marble stairs.

She breathed a sigh of relief as her foot left marble and touched carpet. Her feet were now as silent as the night air.

She passed the first four rooms. Momiji and Hatsuharu had both left their doors open. She smiled a little as she saw Hatsuharu half hanging out of bed- tangling himself up in his own sheets, and Momiji curled up in a little heap hugging his pillow. She walked past the vacant two rooms, the first looked roughly the same as Momiji and Haru's and was probably Kyo's old room, but the fourth she saw was bigger, and a lot more decadent. She assumed that was the King's bedroom. She wondered if maybe one day Yuki would get it.

Finally, after her long walk, she reached the fifth. She hesitated, not sure if her idea was quite as brilliant as it had seemed originally. But her feelings of remorse and pity overpowered her, and she opened the door.

She had expected him to be asleep still, but she had been mistaken. Instead he was once again at his window. But this time he was kneeling at it, with one hand flat on the cover, and the other arm flat on the window sill, his head buried in it.

She hesitated once more, wondering if he needed to be alone. But she dismissed it as an idiotic notion; of course he didn't need to be alone. It was the opposite.

"Um… Y-Yuki-san?" She took a couple of steps towards him and chanced putting her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her. The silvery trails had repeated themselves, drops of salt pain running over the already damp skin he'd cried over earlier.

"Y-You opened my window…?" He said.

"Yes, that was me." She knealt down beside him. As the seconds ticked by she watched as his face suddenly grew more optimistic.

"You…" He tried a smile. Tohru was almost surprised. For someone who spent most of his life alone, the smile was very becoming on him. It made him look even more handsome. "You… Thank you." His eyes started brimming again, but just as the first time, she expected they were tears of happiness. He took her hands in his and kissed both of them, his tears running down her wrists. Then, shocked as she already was, she was even more surprised to have his arms wrapped around her. He buried his head in her shoulder and she managed to put her hands on his back.

Eventually he pulled away, but they were still very close. She could even hear him breathing. "S-Sorry… I… I just, don't, get to see people very often." He said quietly, letting go of her shoulders and looking at the floor. "I don't… Really know how to act…In front of people."

It was obvious that it had been a long time since he'd had any contact with his brothers. Any human contact at all, probably. Had he hugged her because he was that relieved to have someone else in that prison with him? The tears in his eyes said yes.

"That's OK. I do embarrassing things like that too."Tohru laughed a little as she thought of some of these things. "Um… There was this one time, not long ago actually, I was walking and I was talking to my friend, but I wasn't watching where I was going and I walked straight into a tree…" She rubbed her forehead, smiling, as she remembered where it had hurt.

"Um…" Yuki looked up from the floor, puzzled expression on his face. "W-what's a… T-_Tree_…?"She looked back at him, an equally puzzled expression on her face. She had been half joking when she mentioned the fact that he wouldn't know what a tree was to Haru, but she hadn't even tried to imagine what it would be like if he really didn't know. How could someone not know what a tree was? Dung-beetles have seen trees before. And yet a 17-year-old Prince doesn't have a clue. And surely when talking to the others the words would just slip out of their mouths, like they had just done with her.

"Um, well, it's hard to explain… It's like a tall thing which grows out of the earth."

"Earth? What's that?"

This was going to be hard. He really had no idea what she was talking about. "OK, I'll show you then." She stood up, closed his still open door, and opened his window again. Luckily the sun was just starting to come up, so the light was shining on the trees ahead. There were a couple of the taller buildings visible, but beyond the edge of the Palace gardens there was a small patch of forest. The trees were huge, with thick trunks, so thick that even if you linked arms with someone else you couldn't make a hoop around one of them. Beyond the forest, there were just a couple of domes and spires visible. The sky was a glowing orange-pink colour.

"It- It changed!" Yuki was kneeling again. "How… They have really fast painters…"

"No, that's not a ceiling, Yuki... That's the sky." She smiled, and then realised she'd just called him Yuki, "Oops, sorry, Yuki-san…"

"You can call me Yuki if you want to."

"Oh, OK… Well, that's the sky." She said, worrying about calling a Prince by just his first name.

He tilted his head to one side, and then to the other. "What is it?"

"It's, well, i-it is a little like a ceiling, but you can't touch it. And in the daytime it's normally blue, and at night it's almost black. And between those two, it's this colour."

"Night… Day…" He thought for a moment. "I know what those are! Haru told me… Daytime is the one when everyone's doing things, and night is the one, when everyone sleeps, right?"

"Yes, that's right. But it's nearly daytime now, so I should go and do things, I suppose." She stood up and started to close the window, and sighed as she realised she hadn't yet explained the tree concept to him.

"But the sky isn't blue yet." Said Yuki, holding onto the bottom of her skirt. "You… You can stay with me until it's blue if you want to."

She blinked. He really was lonely. "I… Guess so..' She sat down next to him again. He blinked to. Without the sun, trees or anything else worldly like that, there was almost no topic of discussion to be had.

"I'm sorry… I'm not very… Good at talking to other people. I don't really have anything to talk about." Said Yuki, so softly she hardly heard him. She looked at him. He had his head down. She wondered if he was crying again, but saw that he was blushing instead. "The only person I really ever poke to was Kyo… But he's gone." So, the only friend he had left him. She could remember Haru saying that Kyo had been betrothed to another cousin, and that's why he left. The royal commands again The rules that had been set down the day they were born. From the way Haru said it, it didn't sound like y was enjoying himself much being married to Kagura. She wondered if maybe he was as alone as Yuki.

They sat together in silence, and watched through the glass of the closed window as the sky started to glow a cold Wintery blue. Yuki leant her head on Tohru's shoulder. "I guess… Liking this isn't normal then?"

"Oh no. Loads of people love sunrises and sunsets even though they can see them all the time."

Yuki smiled. Tohru knew he didn't understand what a sunrise or a sunset was, but he was learning. It was going to take time, and effort, but eventually he'd get there. She would show him everything there was to know, until he was the one teaching her.

Yuki smiled to himself. He couldn't get over how pretty she was. He should have been concentrating on what was in front of him, but every now and then he would glance at her to see if the glow of the sky's colour had changed how her face looked. And it didn't. Every time he looked he saw the same face. And was glad for it.

Tohru relaxed. She had been afraid that if she said the wrong thing to Yuki she would get into trouble, him being a Prince. But nothing had happened so far. He didn't mind what she called him or how she acted around him at all.

"I don't know what your name is…" He said quietly. Tohru tempted to look at him, but he had put his head on her shoulder so she didn't want to move her head too much or she might push him off. "What is it?"

"It's… Tohru."

"The sky's nearly blue." Said Yuki, yawning from lack of sleep. She smiled.

"I'd better go then."

_Don't leave… You don't have to go._ Yuki reluctantly lifted his head up from it's comfortable position on her shoulder. Tohru smiled as she stood up. _Please don't go yet. I have so much more to see..._

"I'll come back later if I can, OK?"

"Yeah…" She closed the wood covers, and turned to head out._ Don't go._

Tohru sighed as she closed the door behind her. She didn't feel right leaving him now. But she knew that if she stayed any longer someone might find them with his window open, and then the worst would happen. She would lose her job and never see him again, and he would be locked away forever if not killed. But surely being kept away from the world he had now seen, surely that would be a fate worse than death?

She walked on in a sort of daze, considering these things, and was startled to walk straight into Haru.

"Oh!" She jumped, and then slipped on the carpet and nearly fell. Luckily there was a quick arm behind her, and Haru's face was directly above as he was holding her up.

"Morning." He smiled. Tohru attempted a smile too. How was she going to survive in this place when she was constantly surrounded by cuties!

AN: OK, in this chapter I was downloading some more music, and a thought suddenly struck me:

I know what the theme for this chapter can be; Yuki can burst into song and sing Out There from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. I then downloaded the song, and although the words were perfect, I really don't want to turn this into a musical, much as I love them. ; But I came very close to having him jump out the window and sing that song in particular….-Imagine Yuki as Quasi Modo…

AN2: I think I have come to a decision on the matter of Yuki cleaning himself, but what if he needs to use the John? Where shall he go? My first thought was: Out the window… Duh! He can't open it! Second thought, he holds it in. My poor prince Yuki holding it in for 17 years.. He'd explode.

Conclusion: He sweats it out.

AN3: How does Yuki eat?

Conclusion: He has a little vegetable garden which he has cultivated in a drawer. (Squee, Yuki's veggies!)

AN4: In the line that goes: 'As the seconds ticked by she watched as his face slowly grew more optimistic.' I was so tempted to write 'It was like a light switching on in the mines of Moria.' _Who_ is n LOTR fan? I love Lord Of The Things. Especially Legolas…. But Orlando Bloom is a cloth eared toe-rag in real life. He brought his chef and nutritionist to a _dinner party _for goodness sake!

AN4: Hope you enjoyed this chap. More later! Actually if I get more lunch I might have the energy to finish by this evening. Lots of ANs… You guys must be sick of me huh?


	4. An Unexpected Arrival

Hi. Chap number 4… I wasn't sure what this chap was going to be like, so I'm doing a time change. SKIP AHEAD! Powering through!

I'm sorry about all my spazzy ANs last time, they were a little odd. I'll try not to write so many. Unless you like them, that is…

**First Rain**

Chapter 4:

The days passed by like minutes. Tohru spent hours with the Princes, talking, laughing, generally getting to know each other. Every evening she would go and open Yuki's window for him, and she'd try to exlain as much as she could. When she ran out of things in that view to show him, she started describing things instead. She talked about rivers and the sea, the sun, the stars… It was a strange feeling to be teaching something that should have been drilled into a person's mind when they were a child. But she carried on nonetheless, and Yuki was getting to know more and more about the world every day.

What worried her though, was that she kept walking in on him trying to catch a glimpse through his window. She'd told him that he should never look unless she was there, or he'd get into huge trouble, but quite naturally, the temptation was getting harder and harder for him to resist. Even though now he'd seen the view from that window quite a few times, he was still fascinated by it.

Tohru was with Yuki once again, and they were again talking. She had become very good friends with him. Every now and then he'd get confused or upset, and it seemed like she was the only thing that would cheer him up. Sometimes they'd be silent, both waiting for the other to say something, and he would occasionally steal a glance at her. Almost every time he did it, she caught him from the corner of her eye, and could sense him smiling afterwards. She could hardly blame him though. She kept doing the same thing.

"Yuki?" Haru had poked his head round the door. He occasionally came in to see them while Yuki was being tutored. Momiji was sometimes asked to make sure no-one was coming, but he usually ran off to do something else.

Momiji's head appeared underneath Haru's. It actually looked quite funny…

"We have a surprise for you." Said Haru, smiling. Tohru blinked. Yuki did the same.

The two heads disappeared, and they closed the door. Tohru and Yuki looked at each other and blinked. Then they both looked back at the door, to see it open.

A figure walked through the door. Tohru would have noted what his face was like if she had been able to see past the glare of his orange hair.

"KYO!" Yuki yelled, running into the arms of his brother/cousin. _Ah… So this is the married one…_ Kyo smiled when they separated. He looked in Tohru's direction. She thought he was about to say something to her, but he saw the window was open.

"Y-your window is open…" He said, pointing at it as if no-one had realised.

"I've seen it." Whispered Yuki. Kyo looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"What the hell? They let you-"

"No! That's why I'm trying to whisper…Dumbass."

"Ah…" Kyo sat down on Yuki's bed, and was joined by Momiji, who sat on Yuki's pillow. "So you finally took a peak, did you? I always told you that you should just open the damn thing and look."

Technically it wasn't him who looked out." Said Haru, closing the door so no-one could hear them talking. Tohru blushed, anticipating her name popping up in the near future. "Tohru-san opened it for him."

"You mean, you opened his window?" Kyo stood up. He looked kind of angry. "Don't you realise what you could have done?"

Yuki looked panicked. "Kyo…."

"I… I didn't-"

"It wasn't her fault Kyo. She didn't know about any of it." Haru said, standing up with his arms raised in a peace making fashion. "She did it completely by accident."

"Are you sure?" Kyo said, sitting back down but looking at Tohru shiftily. "She could be a spy."

"Oh don't be ridiculous!" Haru almost laughed. Tohru was still a little dumbstruck. "If anyone wanted Yuki dead they could just shoot him or something." He lay back on Yuki's bed, resting his head on his arms which he folded behind him.

"Sh-shoot me?" Yuki wore a horrified expression. "Why would anyone-"

"Relax Yuki. Nobody wants you dead." Said Momiji. " Kyo is just being paranoid."

"I am not!" Kyo yelled.

"Sshh!" Haru hit him on the side of the head. "Shut up…! Not so loud! Now I remember why I was celebrating on your wedding day. No more headaches."

"Why are you back, Kyo?" Yuki said, leaning against his bed. Tohru noticed that his eyes were glowing. It was probably a very rare thing to have all four Princes in the same room. Mainly because there was only one room they could all go in. "And how's Kagura ne-chan?"

"She's fine… Not sure she's too happy with me though… I tried to leg it again."

"What? Oh for goodness sake." Haru laughed. "Why does she put up with you?" _She has to… _thought Kyo. But he smiled. "Wait, is that why you're here? You're running away again?"

"No. Actually I came because I needed to tell you all something. I was going to send a letter but Kagura said it was something that I needed to say in person."

The room went silent. The three other boys knew that Kyo would have had to come overseas to get from the city he lived in with Kagura. So the news would be pretty important. Tohru knew none of this. She simply sat on the floor, wondering what was going on.

"Dad's missing." The words shot through the air like a bullet. Kyo stayed silent for a few seconds after, just to let the words sink in. "You know he was going to come over and see how things were going with me and Kagura? Well, he never made it. There was a storm, his ship got lost and there's been no word. I was half hoping I'd find him here and he just couldn't get a message to me... But I can tell from the look on your faces that's not gonna happen, huh?"

They formed a silence that lasted for a minute or two. Yuki broke it. "Wh-what happens now?"

"That's the thing. We don't know. It says if Dad's dead, you take the throne and get married or whatever. But we don't know where he is. So, until we get some notion as to well the hell he's gone to, I guess things'll stay the same."

"What if they don't… What if he doesn't come back?" Said Yuki.

Kyo looked at him. "I dunno."

There was another long silence. Once again, it was broken, this time by Momiji crying.

They all looked up at him. He covered his face with one hand and tried to wave them all away with the other. Haru put his arm around him, and Momiji buried his head into Haru's side. "Daddy…" Haru started sniffing.

"Oh come on… You're not six anymore Momiji. And Haru, you're worse! You're supposed to be the reasonable one! I'm... The one who had to come… All the way… Here… And…. Tell…" He faded off, trying to stop himself from breaking into sobs. "Aw damn it I hate you guys!" He hugged Haru as well. "We're…Men…"

Tohru started crying next. "It's so… Sad…." When she started to sob Haru somehow forced his arm out of the mass of sobbing royalty to beckon her over. He hugged her too. There wasn't really a point in it, but a small part of her said that he was taking the opportunity.

"You mean, I might never get out?" Yuki said shakily. "And we'll never see Dad…." He broke off too. Haru managed to fit his arms around all four of them, and they all cried for a bit. By the time they were done, the still open window was sending the only light into the room.

"Well, I better go and tell the officials I guess." Kyo wiped his eyes. "We are so pathetic. He'll come back. We'll just have to wait."

"I'll go tell the dudes." Haru forced a smile. " You and Yuki have some catching up to do."

Momiji stood up. "Tohru? You'd better come with us."

Tohru stood up. She took a last look at Kyo. He didn't meet her eyes. There was something about him… She could tell he didn't trust her. "I'm coming." Momiji took her by the hand and let her out with Haru.

Kyo and Yuki sat opposite on another on the bed, but neither of them smiled.

"You're not as pale." Kyo said. "You've always been ale. Tell me. What's changed."

Yuki looked down at the floor. "It's her Kyo. Ever since she came in… I don't know. Ever since she walked through that door, everything's been different. She opened my window. She's been opening it all the time. She's been showing me everything and teaching me about everything I've missed. And she's… really… really pretty. I think I might be… Falling in love with her."

Kyo stayed silent. They looked at each other again. "She's a spy. No doubt. Or she's being used. There's no doubt about it Yuki. You said she opens your window? All the time? She's trying to get you discreetly killed. And teaching you? How are you supposed to act when you get to go outside for the first time? Surprised. It's like someone telling you about your surprise party and having to fake shock. It'll never look sincere. You'll never pull it off. You said she's pretty. Of course she is. That's what they want you to think. You always trust the ones who look like you should trust them. And what do they do? Stab you in the back."Yuki let Kyo's words sink in.

"But-"

"You said you're in love with her."

"I-"

"That's what they want. They want you to fall in love with her so you'll do whatever she says. Don't you see it? She's planned this whole thing out."

"I… I don't think she's a spy, Kyo. She's too… Perfect."

Kyo rolled his eyes. "Trust you to fall in love with the first girl you see."

"I've seen girls before."

"Its an expression." Said Kyo. Yuki sighed, and leaned over so his fore head touched the bed. "Look, I don't want you to stay away from her. Just be careful. You're my brother, you know? I have to… Keep an eye on you."

"I'm not exactly going anywhere." Came the muffled reply. "And I'm your half brother actually."

"Oh shut up." Yuki sat up and leant back on the headboard. Kyo tilted his head forward a little. "You know, we haven't actually discussed why you're less pale. It's physical, and it's not because of all this lovey-dovey crap you have over this girl."

"Her name's Tohru. And… I don't really know. Do I look different?"

"Yup. You have a healthy glow." Kyo suddenly got it. "How much time do you spend looking out of that window, anyway?"

"Well… She comes to see me in the evenings… And we look out then."

"Don't give me that crap. There's no sun in winter evenings. You'll have to have looked in the daytime too."

Yuki looked at the bed again. "Well… I do look every now and then, but only for a second!" He panicked, as Kyo's expression grew dark. Before Yuki could say anything, Kyo exploded.

"You idiot? What are you trying to do, kill yourself? If anyone sees you you'll be a dead man! How could you be so… Aw man…" Kyo sighed and leant back on the bed. "If I was here all the time, I could watch over you better than the others."

Yuki sighed too. He turned around and lay back on the bed next to Kyo. "I wouldn't regret it."

"What?"

"If I got caught. I'd rather die than live life without seeing."

Kyo laughed. "That's so like you, you dork."

"Shut up!" Yuki yelled, smiling. "… Doofus."

"Twerp."

"Idiot."

"Antidisestablishmentarian."

"Oohoo… Using big words now, are we?"Yuki laughed. Kyo nudged him hard in the ribs. "Ow! Why you little-"

The two of them started wrestling on the bed, until everything was completely and totally askew. They ended up in a heap on the floor, hysterically laughing. They were playing like little kids again.

"So… How're you doing with Kagura?" Said Yuki, panting to catch his breath. "Still trying to escape? Has she put an electric fence round the castle yet?" They both laughed.

"No… Actually, when I said I ran away again… I was lying." Said Kyo, his face still flushed from their little tussle. "She's… Starting to grow on me."

"Really? No way… Who woulda thunk it?"

They laughed again. "I just hope she's not scarred from my previous attempts to flee from her clutches!" Kyo burst out laughing as soon as he finished speaking, and Yuki was already in hysteria.

"Kagura… Clutches? Don't you mean death grip?" They laughed again. "If she could hear us now she'd be sharpening her knives…!"

They laughed for at least five minutes imagining the concept.

"Seriously though…" Said Yuki, catching his breath again with his hand on his chest.

"Seriously Nah…"

"Come on! I'm being serious. Are you really… Happy?"

"Yeah. She's great, really. I think I was just freaking out because she was so scary when we were kids. I don't think you were there…. No you can't have been, duh!" He hit himself on the forehead and Yuki sniggered. "Well, when she came to the palace for the first time, neither of us knew about the engagement. She chased me round the gardens and kept jumping at me with a giant rock in her hand. Freaked me way out. Then… Dad told us we were betrothed, and I remember, she went crazy. Hugging me and stuff. I was like…. Dead."

Yuki laughed. "I can imagine!" He smiled. "But, things are good now, right?"

"Yeah. Things are more than good, _if_ you know what I mean…"

Yuki thought for a second. "Eeeeeww…. You mean there'll be little Kyoguras on the way?"

"Yep."

Yuki stopped. "Seriously? Man, I was kidding. She's really pregnant?"

"Uh-huh. It's so funny, she's like, billowed out." They laughed again.

"I had no idea you were that enthusiastic. Why didn't you say in your letters?"

"She only told me a little before I found out about Dad and decided to come and see you. Besides, it's a helluva lot easier to make Kagura jokes in person!"

The conversation changed direction many times, and the worry and anxiety they had both been feeling vanished. Kyo talked about his new life, and Yuki talked about his. Tohru came up bout as much as Kagura, but no matter what Yuki said, Kyo was still convinced she was a discreet assassin.

They stayed on the floor and talked to each other with exactly the same enthusiasm as they'd had since they became friends. All the resentment and hatred Kyo had once felt for Yuki was completely irrelevant. Yuki had moved on, and so had he. There were far more important things to be discussed than a little childhood remorse. And some far more humorous things too.

AN: I hope I didn't make Kyo OOC… I just imagine that he would have matured after spending a lot of time in the company of the supposedly' ultra serious Yuki, and Yuki would probably loosen up thanks to Kyo. But that's just my opinion. If you don't like it, Flame away! It's pretty cold here in the South of Britain, so a nice warm flame would do very nicely!

AN2: Kyoguras. I just thought, is that the name used for Kyo X Kagura fics? Meh… I shall refer to Kyo's 'offspring' with that title. I imagine what Kyo and Kagura's kiddies would look like…? A cross between a cat and a boar…. Eeeew… That's nasty… My imagination can do some pretty twisted things… Like writing this fic for example.

AN3: Kyo and Yuki playing! Who would imagine? I just had to put that in somewhere. I've been considering a lot of Kyo X Yuki fics lately, and I love the pairing. (Please don't flame me for liking shounen, it's just so sweet!)

AN4: Hmmm… I LIKE ANS! –Sorry, I'm a bit of an AN spack.

AN5: Chap 5 may be later than the first 4 have been, but I shall try my hardest! Remember that all this is coming from a girl who is thinking up the storyline on the spot and can't touch-type! Plus my computer is beginning to eat my files and software so I have to be quick and upload stuff before it crumples and dies!


	5. Pieces

Hi! OK, yesterday I would have been beavering away to build you guys a dam… Wait, no, to write you this chapter, but my computer is unfortunately suicidal. We have tried to get it counselling, but the thing is just so depressed it is beyond help. Numerous times has it attempted to kill itself, and the day before yesterday was one of those days. Rain, depressing music I was playing, the works. It just died. Luckily this morning we found it in this state and were able to resuscitate it. So that is why I was unable to speak to anyone yesterday etc. You should have seen me though. I was almost ill with withdrawal symptoms from ring this fic. My hands kept tapping invisible keys; I would call my sister's rat Yuki instead of Luisa ect.

Well, now that we're back in business, this is IMPORTANT! I must urge you to, before reading this chapter, go back and read the end of the newly updated last chapter. You see, because my comp was on the verge of death, it ate the last third of the chapter by accident. So it cut of some crucial info. So just go back and read the little bit at the end that my comp devoured. I managed to save it from annihilation, but I had to upload it again on FF,net.

**First Rain**

**Chapter 5: Pieces**

The night went by slowly. Haru and Momiji lay in bed awake, thinking about what was to become of them if their father really did never return. Eventually Momiji had to go into Haru's bed because he couldn't sleep. It didn't help at all though. Much like Haru and Momiji, Kyo and Yuki stayed awake for most of the night, but they were trying not to dwell on their father's disappearance. They vowed at sunset that they wouldn't bring up the subject, at least not until morning. But it was morning now, although the sun had not yet risen.

Kyo had lain awake while Yuki surrendered to sleep, and a cold thought had struck his mind. He thought of the words Yuki had barely managed to speak when the news had been given. '_You mean, I might never get out?'_

Had Yuki just spent his life bitterly waiting for his father to die? If the King was never found, it could never be assumed that he was dead. So without his father dead Yuki could never leave that room. His only way of escaping was to have his own father die.

The thought had ever really passed Kyo before. He was angry. He was angry both at the custom, and somehow, at Yuki. He wished death upon his father, and when everyone else had been crying for the king, it was possible that Yuki had only been crying for himself.

Eventually the thought that was burning inside of him could no longer be held in. He shook Yuki, and watched as the hazy, sleepy grey eyes slowly forced themselves open.

"Kyo…?"

"You've been wanting him to die, haven't you? You'd rather that ship had crashed and Dad had been found dead."

Yuki blinked, registering these cruel, accusing comments for a moment. He smiled bitterly in the darkness. "_Can you blame me?"_ Kyo blinked. He admitted it? "You wouldn't know. You love Dad, and so do I. At first I would rather stay in here for eternity than have him die on my account. But since you started telling me things… About people I knew that I was never going to meet, love I was never going to share and life; that I was _never going to live_… I eventually started to hate him. I hated it, and I tried to stop myself but I couldn't. When the only thing that stands between freedom ids your father's life, how can you not wish death on him?" Tears dripped down his face as he spoke. "And I hate myself for it."

Kyo stayed silent. Yuki sniffed a couple of times, and Kyo eventually forced himself to speak. "I felt that way too."

Yuki's eyes questioningly widened. "W-what?"

Kyo put his arms around Yuki's shoulders and closed his eyes. "I hated Dad for giving me to Kagura. It felt like I was being sold off. You may not realise it, but I was almost as trapped as you were. It was like waiting for death, anticipating that marriage. But instead of waiting for someone else's death, someone I loved… I was waiting for my own. I hated her, Yuki. Really hated her. I couldn't stand her. And the more I tried to lie her, for my own sake, the more I wanted to die just thinking about it. That's why, I guess, I feel so weird all the time now. I've started… To tell her things, I haven't even told you yet. I… Started to talk to her as if I had always known her. She was like a sister… Until the one night she became a lover." Yuki blushed. Luckily it was dark. "I felt like I'd been denying myself of her all my life, and the reason I hated her was because I associated her with feelings of betrayal and abandonment, you know? I had believed that I had been hating her, but all along it was that damn betrothal. So, I kind of know how you feel."

"You always have. We're brothers, right? We're supposed to share each others' weaknesses and feelings… Aren't we?"

"Yeah…" The last word stayed in the air until they slept. The window was shut, and there was no light in the room at all.

The next day, Haru decided that for once he was going to spend the day with Yuki, seeing as Kyo had to go and discuss what to do about their Father's absence with the councillors, officials, ect. It was the most dull day he'd ever spent on the planet. Tohru as usual cleaned, and Momiji got in the way. Typically she didn't mind.

The evening came. Kyo breathed out slowly, a frustrated yell of boredom threatening to let itself out. He was still in the small boardroom on the bottom floor, with about five extremely boring officials yammering on about political nonsense. The one who was currently dithering on was a slight man whom Kyo couldn't be bothered to remember the name of. It seemed he was determined to put forward a firm, traditional appearance. He kept feebly hitting the table whenever he thought he'd had a breakthrough and it had started to get irritating. The only thing Kyo found mildly interesting about this person was that they had extremely large ears. These damn officials just wouldn't shut up!

"Well, I think we've covered just about everything." He said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. "Prince Kyo, is there anything else you'd like to bring to our attention, or is that it?" Kyo shuddered, He hated being called 'Prince Kyo'. It sounded ridiculous. In his opinion it didn't suit him at all.

He tried to think of anything that he had to say. So far they had reached the conclusion that a search would be sent out for the ship, and until then the man with the large ears would govern the kingdom with the help of his colleagues, or 'spineless minions' as Kyo called them in his head. He tried to suppress a laugh. _All hail King Stuffy-Old-Git-With-Big-Ears._

"No… I think that's it. Wait, no it's not. What about my brother?"

"Which one?" Said Big-Eared-Git.

"Yuki?"

"Prince Yuki? As in the future King Yuki?" Kyo couldn't help snorting a little. That title just sounded so weird… These meetings were getting more entertaining by the second. He realised Big-Eared-Git was waiting for a response. He nodded. "I don't see why anything should change. Nothing's wrong with that room, so he can stay there until we find your father."

"And if we don't find him?"

"Well, that would just be unfortunate for everyone, now wouldn't it?" Kyo didn't like the patronising tone Big-Eared-Git was using to skirt around the question.

"I want an answer, you big-eared stuffy old git!" Yelled Kyo, not quite realising what he had said. Big-Eared-Git looked shocked, and the equally stuffy-old-gits tittered around him.

Big-Eared-Git cleared his throat in disapproval. "I'm not sure you understand the strictness of the tradition we are trying to follow, Prince." Kyo shuddered again. This guy was so spineless. "Nor are you aware that you are talking to the Prime-minister of your country." Kyo stopped dead in his tracks. _No freaking way… This guy? Oh Dad, come_ on! _He's a complete dick!_

He would have said something but he was too speechless, the words taken out of his mouth and feeling almost physically winded by the knowledge that this idiot was his Prime Minister. _ You're supposed to put my country at ease, not make half the population want to strangle you! _'I understand these matters fully, Mr Prime Minister, Sir," _Oh God, don't grovel you fool! "_But I'm afraid I cannot identify with the crap you are spewing. Please explain to me what the hell you plan on doing about the welfare of my Brother, you stupid-" _Easy, easy, don't go overboard. Nicely done though, high five!_ Kyo blinked and shook his head. This meeting might just be driving him insane.

"We fully intend to keep the Prince as happy as possible. But I'm afraid there is nothing we can do towards letting him go."

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do? It's your damn fault he's there in the first place, and if you're not going to do anything then I swear I'm gonna-" He trailed off, his mind once again assuring him that giving threats wasn't the best idea at this moment in time.

"If you are so sure that there is something wrong with the living conditions he has now, perhaps we should go and inspect the place, would that be alright?"

"No, that's not what I said!" Kyo was suddenly serious. It was about that time in the evening…

"Oh no, Prince Kyo, I am genuinely curios now. What is it you're hiding, I wonder?"

The man made a move for the door. Kyo tried to stop him but was practically mowed aver by councellors upon advisors upon officials upon councellors.

He ran to the head of the mob, and tried to reason with the Prime Minister. "Wait, you can't just barge in there-" The man walked on, and irritating smirk on his face. "Listen to me you bastard!" They were climbing the stairs to the third floor. The room was in sight, the door closed. They probably wouldn't hear him if he shouted. Kyo quickened his pace. He ran ahead and stood in front of the Prime Minister with his arms spread. "One more step and you're off the job. I'm serious."

"I wish I could take you seriously PPrince, but you see…" He took the one step. "I'm in charge." With that he pushed Kyo out ofd the way, and opened the door.

Yuki and Tohru didn't notice. The moonlight from that dasmned open window was thrown across their faces as they kissed, Yuki's white hand on Tohru's flushed cheek.

Kyo went suddenly silent. He'd been right. A spy. And his brother… His poor Yuki, was completely seduced. What now? Death? He hoped so. Anything was worse than eternal inprisonment.

Tohru cried as they led her away. Yuki shouted after her and made a break for the door, but they guards got there before him. They shut the doorin front of him, and he heard a key turn. He didn't know what that sound was, but when he tried to open the door he couldn't. He sat down on the floor and felt the tears drip down his face. He felt the darkness envelope his life. His tiny, enclosed, pointless, useless life. He could almost feel the newly drilled in bars behind him on the front of his closed, cut off window. No escape. Not even a tiny glimpse of the world to look at.

Kyo punched the wall. That was it. That _bastard_ Prime Minister's verdict had been given. The law had been dropped from a height and had crushed him. He was going to be used as a body now. Kyo would play the part of King, in Yuki's place. His every decision would be watched and marked, and most likely changed. And on top of that, he'd most likely never see Yuki again, or Haru and Momiji at the rate they had legged it out of the palace. The worst of it though, was being made inot reality now. A message was being written to Kagura, telling her that her husband would not be returning. She'd be asked to divorce him immediately. They'd practically forced Kyo's signature onto the piece of paper. All Kyo could think of was that child that would be born without him.

Haru and Momiji were hiding. When they'd heard the Prime Minister's first words to them, and as guards surrounded them, they had taken the opportunity to run between them and sprint for what seemed like their lives. "_You two Princes, it has come to my attention, that there are two age old traditions that have not been carried out. I'm sure you know what they are. As Prime Minister I am making it my policy to keep to the traditions that make the Sohma Kingdom what it is. I'm sure you both will agree that this is fundamental to creating… A happier way of living for our people." _They stayed together in the street as the Guard started to spread through the city, looking for them. No. Hunting them down. They felt like game.

"Haru…" Momiji said, the tears stinging his eyes. "Where should we…?"

Haru caught sight of a Guard, who in turn caught sight of him. "Come on!" He grabbed his brother by the hand and ran through the streets with him. It seemed like this whole thing was just breaking into horrifyingly small pieces. So small that they might never reassemble.

"Haru… I don't want to be mute!"

Haru almost laughed, but ended up smiling bitterly instead. "I don't want to be a soprano!"

_So… This is it then. It all ends here. _Tohru sat on her own in that small cell. She could hardly see anything. She remembered Yuki's face as she had been led away. It was her fault. Was he going to die? Was he going to live? She didn't know. But she had some idea f what they had in store for her. She'd overheard some of the Guards of her cell talking when they thought she couldn't hear.

'_So, what's going to happen to that one then?'_

'_Dunno. I'm pretty sure it'll be a beheading though. What do you think.'_

'_Probably.'_

AN: O.O I must be depressed… Look at what I have done! OMG…Must… Save… The cast… Must… Peel…. My orange… And write at… The same… Time… -faints.

AN2: OK, someone might flame me for this, but I think I accidentally based the Prime Minister on Tony Blaire. Ooops. Oh well. Just hope he doesn't read it. And if he does, then this is a little message to him; 'sod you, Mr Prime Minister.'

AN3: For those Studio Ghibli fans, I was tempted to call the last chapter; The Cat Returns. Hee hee! Baron… I watched Princess Mononoke again, but my video machine ate the end of it. My appliances and machinery at home get really hungry… Like me! I had two omelettes for breakfast.


	6. A Welcome Voice

Hey. Gotta write fast…. No time to spare!

**First Rain**

**Chapter 6: A Welcome Voice**

Darkness filled the room. Somehow, it was darker than it had ever been before. There was no reason for it… at least no sensible reason. The only thing Yuki could think of to explain it, was that the fact that she had brought him light, made it seem even darker now that she'd gone. It was the truth. She had brought him light. Opened his window. Opened his eyes. Opened his heart. Opened him up. Helped him to see. Help him to breathe air that wasn't filled with hate and frustration.

He could do with a bit of that air now. He was so frustrated he couldn't take it. There was no escape. Not even a crack in the system. Not a crack in the door or the window. Surely there was no way oxygen could get in through that thick mahogany door…. Or the window. The thought started to make Yuki panic. If anything happened, there'd be no way to get out. No escape route. Not even a way to call for help. No-one would care even if they could hear him.

He started to feel a little claustrophobic… and then a lot. He tried lying down on the floor with his eyes shut but it made it worse. He couldn't breathe… He couldn't think… The only instinct he had was to find a way out… But there was no way. No way… and no-one.

He started to pull on the window bars, yelling out to a person who wasn't there, in a place that didn't exist. He started screaming… crying… begging... It wasn't fair… it wasn't right…. There had to be a way… There just had to be…

"Yuki…"

He heard a voice. He spun around. It was coming from the door. He made his way over, and put a hand on it. There was someone on the other side. He knew… It had felt like he'd never hear another human voice again.

"Yuki… Are you there?"

"W-where else would I be." Yuki tried to hide the tears in his voice. "Who is it…?"

"Kyo."

"Good. I'm glad it's you…"

Kyo sat on the other side of the door, with his back leant against it. Just hearing Yuki's tearful voice was enough to drain all the courage he'd worked so hard to keep. He leant his head back and breathed in deeply with his eyes closed. This was more painfull…

"It's my fault." Kyo breathed. Yuki's voice came again. And this time it was a welcoming thing.

"No it's not. You were right all along. I should have… should have listened when you told me… to be careful…"

"Don't be stupid. She would have got herself out of there before they came if she knew they were going to come. It's my fault. Not hers. And if it is, then she'll be paying for it. And if it's not her fault and it is mine, then it's me who should be beheaded. Not her."

Yuki digested this for a second. "How is it your fault."

Kyo managed a bitter laugh of regret. "I yelled at the Prime Minister."

He heard Yuki laugh shakily, and smiled. That was another sound he'd like to hear again more clearly, but probably wouldn't. "Well you should have seen his ears." Another laugh. Kyo smiled sadly. "I… I have to tell you… Stupidest thing I've done in my life. I… had to divorce Kagura, Yuki." There was silence this time, which was good, because Kyo didn't know what he would've done if Yuki had laughed. "I'm… never gonna see my kid…"

"It's my fault too. I shouldn't have looked… ever. It would have been better… If I'd never seen… If she'd… never come…" Kyo heard no more. There wasn't a sound. It felt like Yuki was crying. He spoke again."You said… beheaded…"

"That's… what they'll do to Tohru. I'm sorry Yuki." There was once again that deafening silence. The air was so thick… so still… so quiet.

Kyo got up and leant against the door. "I have to go and find Haru and Momiji. They ran away. No doubt I'll get in trouble if I don't try to find them…. But I'm gonna get them more lost… so no-one can find them. You… Won't judge me… If I hide to… for a bit?"

Yuki was quiet. Alone again. Was it too much to take? He knew he couldn't be selfish, not to a brother who'd practically lost their only child… and wife. "Go ahead. I'll still be here when you get back."

"Good."

As he walked down the stairs, Kyo realised what a bastard he was. _Tohru…_

He took the pace to a run and then to a sprint. He had to find her and help her, before it was too late.

Haru and Momiji ran through the mahogany forests as fast as they could. They were hopelessly lost. They didn't care at all. The only thought on their mind was to run. Away from the madness. Away from the death. Away from everything that threatened to swallow them up completely. That feeling of helplessness; that if you didn't run you'd be caught. That if you were caught there was no running away again. That f you didn't run away, you'd never escape. That if you didn't escape it would all be over. That was the feeling they were running from, adrenaline rushing through them, sweat pouring off them, their hearts racing as fast as a humming birds wings.

Suddenly there was only one of them. Haru looked around. He was alone. "M-Momiji? Where the hell… MOMIJI!" He yelled, suddenly worrying.

He spun around, moving so quickly he couldn't see. All the trees looked the same._ There_ was a problem. Which way had he been running?

Suddenly he spotted him. Momiji was being half carried, half dragged away by a couple of guards.

Haru started running towards them. "No! Haru… they'll get you too, just run!" yelled Momiji, franticly struggling against the guards. "Run, dammit!"With that last word he bit the guard's hand, and got a little closer to freedom. But another guard came up behind them all and grabbed him harder. No resisting would work. He surrendered, crying, letting them drag him back towards the place he'd run from.

Haru ran. He ran like never before. He ran out of bitterness, frustration and fear. He would have stayed and saved Momiji, but deep down he knew there was nothing he could have done. Now his brother would probably have his tongue cut out… and he would just run so far he'd never hear about it. To a place he wasn't recognised as a prince. If he ever made it out of that forest…

Yuki cried. He cried again. And he couldn't stop it. No voice of reason was going to sound to him through the door. His only relations were gone. His only friends. Just him in that stupid, tiny little room.

There was a sound at the window. He jumped. He looked at the shut, barred window. The bars were twisting around… On their own. Yuki stepped backwards, terrified. The first bar suddenly disappeared. He watched it as it shot up through the hole in the ceiling that it ad been screwed through. The second did the same.

Without a thought, Yuki had flung open the covers, and without even opening it, he'd leapt through the window.

A new feeling entered his body. He lay on the ground, dazed. Something was coming out of him… It was red… He didn't know what it was. It hurt. He managed to lift himself of the ground. He breathed out, almost without breathing in. He… Was outside…

Tohru sat alone in the cell. Her eyes hurt from crying. She was helpless.

"Tohru!" She heard a voice, and was shocked. Panting, running towards the cell she was in at the prison in Akitao, was Kyo.

"Kyo-san…?"

"Look, we don't have much time." He said. He produced a key from inside his shirt, and shoo it a little. Some blood came off. He started to unlock the door to her cell. She stood up.

Where'd you get the key?"

"Swiped it." He laughed. "OK, beat up the guard. Don't tell."

She blinked. Eventually the door swung open. "Is this… Allowed?"

"What do you think? Does 'Beat Up the guard' mean _anything_ to you?"

"S-sorry."

"I need you to go and find Haru and Momiji. I have to go and tell Yuki you're out of here."

"O-OK, do you know where they went?"

"No, or I'd find them myself." He turned and started to run towards the exit. Tohru saw the punched out uard.

"Kyo, wait!"

"What?" He stopped.

"I didn't try to hurt Yuki."

He paused, and turned around. "I know."

He ran back towards the palace. He ran just a little faster. It had started to rain.

AN: I am so depressed, well, actually this is fun, but it's depressing. Last chappy soon. O O

AN2: If I made mistakes don't flame, simply learn to ignore…

AN3: I made myself cry again writing this… Poor Yuki… Poor Momiji… Poor… Kyo… Poor Kyogura… Seriously, if they call their child that I'll kill it.


	7. Apocalypse

Hi… I get the feeling this is nearing completion…. –sniff. I have been listening to the Fruits Basket soundtrack, and good god, the opening song makes me feel so sad… So sad I couldn't sleep last night… No, that's a lie. I couldn't sleep last night because I was worrying about the fact that we had pheasant for dinner (Not a usual thing I know) and I swallowed the bullet. O.O

**First Rain**

**Chapter 7: Apocalypse**

It was beautiful. And sad too. The water was pouring out of the sky like blood from a wound… And although he didn't understand it, Yuki was convinced that he knew what it meant.

_I'll never find her…_ He thought. He was in the strange place she had described… A forest. He was lost, but he didn't understand the concept of 'lost'. Since his first breath of clean air, he had been lost. This world was unknown to him. Something told him he was never meant to enter it.

And in his point of view, at this rate, by the time he found her it would be too late.

-

Kyo ran up the stairs towards the third floor. He was still dripping, even though the rain had only started when he was in sight of the Palace. He ran towards Yuki's room, and knocked rapidly on the door. There was no answer. "Yuki?" He tried again. "You better not be brooding in there, this is important." There were no signs of human life.

If there had been anyone inside that room, they would have been able to hear the repeated 'thudding' sound of someone flinging himself against the door in an attempt to break it down. This worked.

Kyo fell with the door onto the floor of the empty room. He slowly got up, expecting to see the astounded face of his brother. But there was no-one there. Kyo looked around, dumbfounded by Yuki's absence. There had never been a time when he hadn't known exactly where Yuki was. And this room had almost never been empty. It felt cold… Lonely. Just like he must have felt.

Or perhaps the coldness was from the fact that the window had been shattered? Sure enough, Kyo could see the broken glass in the frame, and the small spots of blood that accompanied them. Steeling themselves, he looked out the window, waiting to see a broken body on the ground. But there was none.

"So. You made it then?" He said to himself, smiling.

-

Haru stopped running. He looked around. The rain had made it even harder to see anything in this dense forest. But he was certain of one thing. He was alone.

The feeling was more devastating than it should have been. He was almost never alone. He always had the annoying little one near him, or irritating him. Momiji was always by his side, if he wasn't out or with Yuki.

He'd always been there. So why the hell had he just left him to those damned guards?

Haru was more shocked than sad, or angry. He sat down on the thick roots of a tree, and contemplated this past few hours. One word came to mind. He rolled it around in his mouth and thought of the best way to say it. But there was no way. It was a thought, not a spoken word. _Chaos._

He slowly stood up and smiled to himself. He knew there was no way he would keep running now. No fuel. No motivation. He was no longer being chased, and it seemed all his earthly ties lay in the other direction. And so, that was where he would go. Back where he needed to fix things. And he had an idea of how to do it.

-

Tohru tried desperately to find Hatsuharu and Momiji. But it seemed they had vanished entirely from the world. They were gone. And the rain made it harder and harder to see. The thick grey clouds were massing overhead like a threat, although it seemed the citizens of Akitaio were already being punished for their sins by the freezing cold rain being thrown at them.

She made her way through the forests now, thinking that Momiji and Haru would assume they were safer in a place where it was harder to see. But it was also easier to get lost.

Tohru slipped on the wet ground and fell. She had one hand in a puddle that was growing larger by the second, and the other hand was in a patch of mud so dark it was almost black.

_This day just keeps getting better and better…_ She thought sadly. She lifted her head up from it's down ward position. And at that instant she saw it. The sight she would never forget. The sight her premonition had warned her of.

She saw him.

-

"Crying…"

_This is what they call an apocalypse… Isn't it? The sky isn't blue, or black, or even orange. It's a dull grey. That's not what she told me could happen. They say when ther's an apocalypse and the world is going to end, the sky will change colour and everyone will die. Is that this? Are we all going to die? Everything looks so sad… Like even the trees are mourning for something… Someone. The sky is crying. Crying for someone gone._

_Crying for her._

"Yuki!" _It can't be. I'm mourning too. She's still there, in my head. That's why I can hear her voice. But I can't see. I can't see a thing. Why is the sky crying. Stop… Please just stop… I can't stand it…_

"STOP CRYING!" The sound of footsteps echoed in his ears, small, but resonant nevertheless. He felt a hand on his soaked shoulder. And he turned around. _It can't be…_ "You're not real. You're dying. You're… Dead. Everything it crying for you."

Tohru's eyes pleaded with him. "Don't talk like that. I'm here. It's really me. Why can't you see?"

Who cared if it was an apocalypse? She was there. With him. He could watch with her. He could watch the world die with her. It wouldn't matter. He wouldn't care. The world meant nothing without her there. Something said the world could survive now. Something said they'd all pull through. How could anything be sad with Tohru there? Even now, the sky's bitter mourning tears felt like tears of joy and relief. But why cry at all? Why not laugh?

She put her hand out, her palm facing towards the overflowing heavens. She looked beautiful even in this light. "This is what they call rain, Yuki." She smiled at him. "It must be the first rain of the winter."

"The first… Rain…"

-

Momiji struggled wildly against the hundreds of hands that seemed to be holding him down. He saw that one of them was already holding the knife. He had no idea where he was, except for the indication that there was no rain falling. He looked down. He recognised the marble floor of the main hall. So, they were going to do it here? Right now? Surely there would be somewhere more appropriate…?

"Right…" Said someone. Momiji assumed it was the one with the knife. "This'll only take a second and then I'll all be over." A face came into view. Momiji spat at it. "Now…" Said the man, unfazed by a little royal saliva. "If you'll open your mouth…?"

"You're crazy!" Yelled Momiji, closing his mouth tightly immediately afterwards.

The man smiled. "Orders are orders." His free hand grabbed Momiji's blonde hair and forced his head forward. Momiji glared at him. The man let go of his hair, but pinched his nose instead. Momiji tried defiance, still glaring. But he started to feel hot, and began to run out of oxygen. The glare faded, and his face seemed to be pleading. Didn't these people have hearts? They probably did this sort of thing every day…

"Momiji?" There was another voice…a more familiar one. Momiji tried to concentrate but his mind was starting to go blank, and he didn't dare open his mouth. He'd rather suffocate than give up. But it seemed he wouldn't have to.

There was a sound like metal meeting with skull, and the man let go of Momiji's nose. He inhaled deeply, but to his almost humoured surprise found that it made a weird whistling sound when he did so. It would have been comical, were it not for the seriousness of the situation.

Momiji blinked when at least three other men went down after the man with the knife, ad then some more, and then he could see his surroundings. And a flash of bright orange.

"Kyo!" He yelled without thinking. Luckily by the time he did all his enemies had fallen, at the hand of his older brother with the broken off leg of a suit of armour. "Thank God, they were gonna cut out my tongue!" He shouted, his hand over his mouth in a somewhat protective manner.

"Bastards…" Kyo uttered, nudging the splayed out body of one of the men with his foot. "Where's Haru?"

"He… Carried on without me."

"He left you? Bastard…"

"Stop that! And he had to. I yelled at him and made him go. Plus, I don't think he was looking forward to having his thing… 'Surgically removed'." Momiji smiled, although Kyo couldn't see this because his hand was still over his mouth.

"Hey!" There was a voice from the door. They both turned, and saw Haru, panting like crazy, his hands on his knees. He'd obviously been running like a thoroughbred. "I… Have an idea."

"Do you now, Oh Drenchéd One?" Kyo raised an eyebrow. "What's that then?"

"Look, I'll handle the important bit. You two just go outside to the gates and scream bloody murder. Do whatever; just get as many people as you possibly can to crowd by the Palace steps OK? But make sure they don't come too close. As many people as you can possibly get. Don't matter who they are."

With that, he began to run up the stairs. _I sure as hell hope this works. _ He wiped a bit of rain off his forehead. This plan was going to be a risk, and it could all end up achieving nothing positive, but there was one person he knew he could count on. And they'd certainly agree to help Yuki. _OK brother. It's about time you paid me back._

AN: Woohoo! I finished the chapter! I thought I wouldn't, because I've been out until 6:00PM and I only had till 8:00 or 7:00 to write it!

AN:I have had the weirdest stomach feeling…. It doesn't hurt, it's just… weird… I guess that's the bullet talking. I feel like I've been brutally shot, but it's not too bad. Still, it's pretty cool. How many people can say they've ingested a weapon of destruction, eh?

AN: Next chapter will be the last one, then there'll be an epilogue. See you there!


	8. The Last Bird Flies

OMG… Last chappie before the Epilogue! I shall be sad to end this fic… But I'm glad I can finish it before going back to school! X3 Oh, and if you want me to write a pointless sequel do say so in a review, good friends. Though it would have to wait until the Xmas hols, because I'm at school till then. Who the hell invented school? And school Internet too… Because it sucks. It does NOTHING! I can't even write more ficlets while I'm there at the convent! It's not really a convent, just a religious all girls boarding school. Sounds like a barrel of laughs don't it?

**The First Rain**

**Chapter 8: The Last Bird Flies**

Kyo and Momiji stood in the frame of the Palace doors.

"So… What the hell is 'scream bloody murder' supposed to mean?" Said Kyo, scratching his head.

"I guess we should just attract some attention." Momiji replied, equally puzzled, his hand still close to his mouth.

"Meh... MURDER! THERE'S BEEN A MURDER!" Kyo put both hands to the sides of his face and framed his mouth. "EVERYONE COE OVER HERE AND HEAR ABOUT THE EXTREMELY INTERESTING AND BLOODY MURDER!"

"Kyo… He didn't mean it literally!" Hissed Momiji. He stopped when he saw at least twelve people, and more, running towards the Palace steps where they were situated.

One of them tried to inquire upon the young Princes. "What hap-"

"MURDER! SOMEONE… _EVERYONE_ GET OVER HERE AND GAWK AT IT!" Kyo cut the man off, yelling with his lower voice. Momiji quickly ran inside the Palace. "Hey, you better not be leaving me out here to do this alone, you little runt!"

"This better not be a prank, Prince Kyo!" Shouted a woman from the ever-growing crowd. It was hard to hear through the rain. Suddenly Momiji was back, dragging one of the previously knocked-out men with him. He smiled. This was the one with the knife.

The crowd gasped. Kyo smiled. "Genius." He whispered.

Momiji smiled coyly. "Revenge is sweet." He dropped the unconscious mans body, splayed across the top step and a few down from that. "MURDER!" He smiled, which puzzled the crowd. "This is fun Kyo!"

They carried on attracting people until there was a mass of interested yet 'horrified' gawkers, forcing their way through the Palace grounds, until the crowd stretched far beyond the Palace gates.

One man tried to check if the man was really dead. "EWWW!" Yelled Momiji, improvising. "Don't touch a _dead body_!" The man backed off puzzled.

But people were getting impatient. _Come on Haru… What are we supposed to do?_

-

Haru braced himself as he climbed the small secret ladder to the attic. He wasn't supposed to know about it, so he was glad that nobody was around.

He found himself swallowed up by darkness.

There seemed to be no end to this black abyss. But he knew there was. He pulled out a previously prepared match, and lit it. The light filled a small part of the room. He heard something move, as if scared by the light.

"Relax, brother. It's me."

The creature hesitated, still masked in darkness. "Hatsuharu?"

Haru nodded. He put a hand through his damp white hair. His forehead was sweating. He wasn't scared, but the air was so tense…

"I need that favour you promised."

"Why should I honour any such promise I made to you? What's in it for me?" It replied, coming a little closer. It was almost menacing.

"There is something in it for you, if you're interested."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"I'll let you out. You'd be free. I'd help you escape and you could go wherever you wanted, brother.

"What use do I have for freedom? I wouldn't know how to use it. Yuki on the other hand… He's learnt. If only my view through that crack… If only it was tilted so I could see through that 'window' as well."

"I could teach you. You'd be hidden for a few days, and then when you were ready we could let you go." Haru started to worry. What if his brother didn't agree? The others were getting a crowd, and no doubt a couple of guards would be part of it. If he went back downstairs alone, they'd have no chance. The sympathy vote wouldn't work without proof. A living, breathing symbol of the pain endured by all of the Sohma Princes, for ages before.

"Forget it."

"S-so you're just going to stay here, in darkness, for the rest of your life?" The match light burnt Haru's fingers, and went out.

"Yes." Haru felt his shoulders droop at this remark. "My world is dark. That's the way it was meant to be."

"No-one deserves eternal solitude. No-one deserves to be alone. Not from the moment they were born, at least. And no-one deserves to live in darkness."

"Have you ever heard of original sin?" There was no reply from the white haired Prince. "We sinned before we were born. So we all have some reason to be punished."

"I don't believe in that."

"I do." Haru felt a hand on his arm. He could sense his brother's face close to his. "What other reason would they have to punish me like this? I had to believe it, or I'd go insane. It was my only mantra."

Haru put his hand on the one that gripped his arm. "You don't need a mantra anymore. You can leave."

"Then…" He paused, not knowing what to say. "What is it you wanted me to do?"

"I need to show you to the world, at the same time as I show the world to you."

-

The crowd was getting restless. They demanded to know why they were there in the rain, if not for a dead body. (The man had already woken up, only t be hit on the head again by Kyo, and put back in the Palace hall. –Though it didn't look too good for Kyo's reputation.)

"If… You'll just wait a little longer, I'm sure you can just-"Momiji tried to reason with the crowd but was cut off when a boot flew very close to his head and hit the Palace door.

"Hey, just back off OK! Gees, who are all these people?" Kyo said quietly to Momiji, also starting to worry about the amount of heavy things being thrown. "Are they really supposed to throw things at us? We are Princes…"

"Hey." Once again, Haru showed up. He was poking his head through the door, looking at Kyo.

"Where the hell have you been!"

"Relax, I'm here now. And I have our secret weapon." Haru cleared his throat and addressed the crowd. "SHUT UP!" There was silence, except for the sound of the ever falling rain. Kyo started to sweat when he saw Big-Ears towards the back, with a couple of guards. One of them was holding Tohru by the arm, and another had Yuki. "I have here, something that is sure to shock and astound many of you. This is a person only a couple of people have met, and I am the only person who has ever seen his face. He has spent his life in darkness, in the top rooms of the Palace. This is our last brother."

The crowd stood completely still. Kyo and Yuki froze. They'd never heard of this person before. Momiji stayed quiet. _So, you're finally bringing him out?_

Haru stepped out from behind the door, and with him, he brought a boy. He looked shockingly like Yuki, but with Black hair instead of grey, and dark eyes. They looked as black as the room he'd just left. He blinked. He tried to take in everything around him, but there was too much. Haru put out an arm for support. He knew it was crueller than anything he could have done, but for his sake, and everyone else's, he knew it was necessary.

"This is Akito. The third Prince of Akitaio."

Kyo felt a bit dizzy. This day was getting the better of him. Akito… Akitaio… Maybe the name had been passed down or something?

Akito looked at the crowd, who in turn looked at him. They noticed how deathly pale he was, and his black hair didn't make him seen any less like a corpse. He assumed he was meant to say something. But he wasn't at all sure what to say. "I… Don't know what you are." He said quietly. A few more people were adding on to the crowd. It now stretched to the very end of the streets, and went off in different side streets. Perhaps the whole city was here? "You all… Look the same… Not one of you is any more important to me than the other. You're… All disgusting."

The crowd stayed silent. How were they supposed to react? Akito carried on, his voice getting louder. "I heard Yuki cried when he first saw the outside. But I'm not going to cry. I'm not sad. Or happy. I'm angry. I've never been anything but angry. I've always been angry, and frustrated. I've hated everyone I've ever met. Because I know that people are capable of torturing other people, and making them die."

Momiji sniffed. He had never met Akito. He only knew of him from Haru. But the story still made him sad.

Haru watched Akito as he spoke. He felt a strong sense of compassion, and admiration, but not pity. Akito didn't need or want that. He had learnt everything he knew from his own source of information. Yuki. Akito had been watching Yuki all his life. He'd listened to every word, witnessed every emotion. He hadn't hated Yuki. But the he'd never met him either.

"Yes, I've spent my life in one room, like Yuki. I've spent it in darkness. Apparantly I am never supposed to see another human being. Yuki was the first face I ever saw. And that was through a crack in the floor. According to your traditions I was never supposed to learn to speak, or to hear another human voice. Well I don't care shit about your traditions!"

Momiji looked at the shocked face of his older brother. _Since when does Yuki swear like that?_

"Our lives were over the moment they began! And we did nothing to deserve it! To hell with original sin! We're not demons… We're real people. Just like you. We're as disgusting and cruel as you are. So why are we the subject of your torture? Why us? What made us different from anyone else? NOTHING! We're just as twisted and foul as the rest of you. No-one deserves to be born in a cage. I know that sounds out of the ordinary, but it happened to us. And we're just as ordinary as the rest of you. So just… Leave us alone…" He sat down on the top step. The marble was so drenched; he might as well have been sitting in a lake.

Yuki found that the grip on his shoulder had lessened. The guard was staring in the same direction as everyone else. At Akito. Had he really been the first face? Had he really been the first person Akito ever saw? He sensed that the crack in the ceiling he had always found annoying, someone else had found it their only source of humanity. He remembered watching the bars on his window magically unscrewing themselves. He had a feeling Akito had something to do with it.

Akito breathed out. He smiled. It was a weird feeling. He couldn't remember ever smiling before. Although he had watched Yuki smile a thousand beautiful smiles. He blinked at the water falling on his head. Was it always like this? If it was, he would rather stay indoors. He got up, and walked through the crowd. They parted infront of him. He remembered that he was what they called, 'Royalty.'

He walked on, until he was level with Yuki. He put a hand out, ad Yuki shook it reluctantly. He smiled one of those beaming smiles, and Akito let go of his hand.

He walked on past the rest of the silent crowd, out of the streets and into the forests. Who cared what they were? They were his.

AN: Epilogue next. HOPE YOU LIKED IT!

AN: Hope Akito was spazzy enough…


	9. A Winter Past

AN: OK, last instalment. I have enjoyed writing this fic very much! I go back to school tomorrow afternoon, so I will hopefully post this just in time. Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed. It means a lot to me! This is the Epilogue so there's a time skip, hope you don't mind. Please read and tell me what you think!

AN: This is the first Epilogue I've ever written… so if it's bad I'm sorry! Gomen nasai

**First Rain**

**Epilogue: A Winter Past**

The air was as chilled as it had been on those few days, one whole, long, eventful year ago. Yuki could see the mist in front of his face. He smiled. He remembered wondering what that had meant a year ago. Finally he could say that he had memories that weren't conversations, or just days that meant nothing. He now considered it a strange thing to spend whole days or weeks without saying a word. A year ago, that was his reality.

A strange cold feeling suddenly went through him. He felt it start on the tip of his nose, and then it shuddered through him like a bruise. He looked down at his nose. There was something white on it. Cold and white. It slowly got smaller and disappeared. _Strange_… He took a few more steps on the gravel path of the Palace gardens. He looked around. This white stuff was floating down pretty much everywhere. _OK… Don't panic… Surely there's some reasonable explanation…_ "Tohru!" Spotting her he ran over to her, skidding on the icy ground. "There's… Stuff! It's… Weird... I think it might be an apocal-"

"It's not an apocalypse honey. It's snow." Tohru laughed. She tilted back her head and stuck out her tongue. Some snow landed on it and she smiled, her tongue still protruding from her mouth. _You're so cute it's unfair._ Yuki smiled. The winter sun poked out from behind a cloud. A shaft of light fell on her and her face seemed to glow. _Angel_… She held out her hand. The wedding ring glinted on her finger in the sunlight. He took her warm hand, and they walked on together.

-

"I think it'll snow today." Said Kyo quietly. He smiled. Kagura sat next to him.

"Does Keiko know what snow is yet?" She asked.

"I don't think so." Said Kyo, the image of his daughter fondly cropping up in his head. "We should tell her."

"Let's wait till it snows." Said Kagura. They watched the weather from the window, both secretly hoping it would snow. There was so much still to see.

-

Momiji and Haru walked through the forest together, letting the snow land softly on their heads.

"Why did you have to make us go out when it's so cold?" Momiji said, grimacing.

Haru smiled. "Just glad it's not raining."

"I hate the rain." Said Momiji.

"I wouldn't say I hated it, it's just a pain." Haru smiled again. " Like you."

"Aw, you don't hate me?" Momiji laughed. "Isn't that cute."

"You'd better watch it. Rain suddenly doesn't seem so great after all!"

"Hey!"

-

Tohru smiled. Her hand was still laced with Yuki's and that's the only way she wanted it. As the snow fell on their heads, she leant hers on Yuki's shoulder, and they stood still for a moment. Their Palace was in sight, and the snow was softly falling on that too.

Yuki squeezed her hand gently, a signal that perhaps it was getting a little too cold.

"Come on then, 'King Yuki'."

"Oh be quiet."


End file.
